Battle of Aliwal, 28th January 1846

Battlefield viewed from
British / EIC right flank

Friday 21st June, saw us start playing John and Dave's Sikh Wars game of the Battle of Aliwal, we used 15mm figures form Dave and John's collections and a localised version of Principles of War Rules specialising in the period.
Nigel, Rupert and Mike W, took the role of the British / East India Company forces whilst John, Mike N, Phil and Steve took on the role of commanding the Sikhs.

Rupert's advancing
British / EIC Regulars

The Sikhs deployed across the length of the table, with John commanding hordes of Sikh irregular foot on their right flank, Mike N, commanding similar on the central right and Steve same on central left of the line. On the extreme let flank of the Sikh line was their regular troops and hordes of their cavalry, commanded by Phil.

On the British side the decision was to focus their small number of units on their right flank.Mike W, commanding the two brigades of Cavalry - pitted against four brigades of Sikh cavalry. Rupert commanded two infantry brigades in eh center - facing-off Sikh regular foot regiments and then Nigel commanding a mixed infantry / cavalry brigade to protect the British left flank from the expected Sikh flanking attack,once they realise that they have no forces directly opposing them.

Sikh Cavalry on their left flank

British / EIC Cavalry Brigades

The game opened with the British cavalry and infantry forces advancing to meet and pin the Sikh regulars as they attempted to move out of the village on that flank.

Artillery was moved forward and on the second turn was able to start raking the Sikh troops with some effect.

Sikh cavalry charged and engaged with their British counterparts and y the end of the first evenings play honours were about even - with a couple British / EIC cavalry units being pushed back and one Sikh unit broken and two others seriously damaged. However weight of numbers looks like the Sikhs will likely overpower the British during week two.

Rupert advanced his British / EIC infantry and closed on the Sikh counterparts,however,there was no decisive outcome yet in that area.

Finally Nigel was able to turn his flanks to protect the rest of the British force against the hordes of
Sikh irregulars looming from that direction.

Week Two began pretty much where week one left off, except that the British / EIC leadership team lost the help of Nigel who was otherwise entertained!!

The Governor's Guard 

Notwithstanding that the British / EIC forces put up a sterling defensive withdrawal, on their right the highly trained Horse Artillery raked the opposing irregular cavalry mercilessly, inflicting high levels of casualties and breaking a number of units.

The Sikh flank attack developing

This artillery action, along with repeated cavalry interventions held back the massed Sikh cavalry units, by the end of week two about half of the 12+ Sikh  units were destroyed or very badly mauled. However, the same was true of the British / EIC units and their demise was near.

In the British / EIC center the foot units were able to withdraw in a managed manner, Phil's Sikh regular foot following up but hesitant in closing to try and destroy the British / EIC forces.

Close-up of the John's
Sikh Infantry

On the British left, now commanded by Rupert, John's horde of Sikh irregular foot swept round to hit the British / EIC makeshift line,the 4th Bombay Lancers made short shift or the irregular foot in front of them, breaking the unit and pursuing them from the field.

A neighboring regiment of British / EIC Gurkhas shot out a unit of Sikh fanatics and with heavy fire for other regiments in the line,John's flanking attack suddenly came to nought...

... however, behind John was Mike N's irregular Sikh brigade and the end was near for the British / EIC, by the end of the evening there was nowhere for the British / EIC forces to go, except off the table, the game was called and proclaimed a Sikh victory.

This scenario was taken from Wargames Illustrated, issue 271 <here>

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For more information on the 1st Sikh Wars, see our other posts <here>